Our neighbors to the north, er, the northeast, have a freedom vote on the ballot in November – freedom from their local government’s overspending and mismanagement. This effort was initiated by a resident. You can read the article here.
How are they doing it? Residents will be voting on disincorporation to become part of better-run Lake Orion Township.
What did the residents have to say at the village’s special meeting to discuss the issue? There was overwhelming support for it:
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- The village is “a sinking ship” and “no longer a sustainable community.”
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- “Nothing’s really going to change here that’s noticeable to anybody’s eyes except that we will become sustainable again. We will get brought into the township, which is competent. Our village isn’t going to change; it’s still going to look like a village. The difference is we’ll be able to afford it. We won’t be struggling all the time. Things will get done. And that’s the basis of this.”
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- “This ship is sinking rapidly. There are no lifeboats and there’s no safety net and it’s going down. It can’t sustain itself any longer. Look at your water rates and your taxes… The problem is that our forefathers, including our leadership over the last 25 years, have neglected to address the critical issues in this community.”
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- “[I] think the people of the village deserve much better.”
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- Another resident noted that “it’s time to disincorporate village, citing high water and sewer rates and accusing the village government of not being transparent with taxpayers.”
Wow. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
We are taxed at the maximum rate allowed by charter – and the city wants even more!
Our office employees constantly whine about salaries and benefits but are never held accountable for wasting tax dollars.
The lack of transparency is appalling and escalating.
We are subjected to constant sewer rate increases.
Just last Monday, the Clarkston city council:
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- Voted to hold a special meeting to ask you to agree to pay all or part of the cost we pay to Independence Township for police and fire services through a “public safety millage” so they could keep more of the money you’ve already paid into the general fund to spend any way they want. (Maybe more big raises and benefits for office employees?)
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- Voted to increase your sewer fees again – because city officials raided our previously very healthy sewer funds, over resident objections and without a resident vote, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild city hall and give the city manager a private office (when repairs would have cost less than $50,000) – leaving us with no cushion for repairs, rate increases, or other expenses.
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- Have been holding lots of secret closed meetings, including one unannounced session last Monday. Some of these secret meetings have been on the published agenda and some have been added at the last minute with no notice to the public. Most of the time, the city won’t even tell us what the subject is, and it initially resisted a FOIA request for records that would reveal the subject of the meetings. Secret meetings = secret government.
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- Had a finance committee meeting to discuss the best way to significantly increase our taxes, invited the city attorney but didn’t inform the public, and then falsely claimed the notice of the meeting was published so the public could attend (it was not published). Since they don’t record these meetings or take minutes, we’ll never know what they discussed.
Are you sick of this yet?
Maybe we should consider a merger ourselves.
We wouldn’t notice a change, since we contract with Independence Township for almost everything. Any other contracts for services could eventually also be provided by Independence Township once they end.
Other than the historic district, there’s no reason why we can’t reunite with Independence Township, pretty much like we used to be when Clarkston was a village. And I’m sure we could come to an agreement with Independence Township about the historic district that residents in both the township and the city would be happy with. A civil discussion is the only way it would happen, since it’s doubtful that 2/3 of the city and half of the township voters would vote favorably on a bare merger.
Or, how about an intergovernmental agreement with Independence Township to provide all management and services except for matters concerning the historic district? Our costs would be lower, we would be better managed, and I doubt anyone would notice a difference since Independence Township is already doing most of what we need now.
Why am I suggesting a historic district carve out? Because without it, every crazy in the city will come out against all reasonable management or merger proposals and spew their oft repeated lies to you about what it means. Seriously – aren’t we all sick of hearing that M-15 will be widened if the crazies don’t get their way? One public official told me there were nut jobs spreading rumors that M-15 would be widened and historic buildings and homes knocked down if they were elected to city council, so it’s a multi-purpose lie that wasn’t limited to the very reasonable Historic District Commission ballot proposal from a couple years ago. (Why yes, these idiots are that crazy and FYI, no one has ever proposed widening M-15, which is a state highway. And now I have “Crazy Train” playing in my head as an earworm.)
Let’s think outside the box because it’s not going to get better. Feel free to email me with thoughts.
And good luck to the residents of the Village of Lake Orion. I hope you get a better government than you have now. At this point, we can only watch and be envious.